'Truth spoken without moderation reverses itself'
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Saturday, February 18, 2017

We Need To Reach Out To Kashmir's Youth, Says Former Army General DS Hooda

The government needs
to reach out to Jammu and Kashmir, especially to its youth, immediately,
General DS Hooda, who just retired as the Northern Army Commander, told HuffPost
India.

General Hooda's remark
comes a day after Chief of Army Staff General Bipin Rawat said those
obstructing military operations or pelting stones will be considered as
over-ground workers for terrorist groups and terrorist sympathisers.

Asked to explain what
he meant by an outreach, General Hooda said
there is no doubt that "Jammu and Kashmir is ours, but we must also
underline that people of Kashmir are also ours. If there are genuine
grievances, we must address them."

General Hooda's remark
is in sharp contrast to Chief of Army Staff General Bipin Rawat's. Besides
warning stone-throwers and villagers who obstruct operations, General Rawat
said, "People who have picked up arms, the local boys, if they want to
continue with such acts of terrorism and display flags of ISIS and Pakistan,
then we will treat them as anti-national elements and go helter-skelter for
them. Our relentless operations will continue."

General Hooda commanded in the valley
during one of the most difficult times, between June 2014 and December 2016,
and also carried out the surgical strikes last September that destroyed several
terror launch pads in Pakistan. The Northern Command is one of the largest
formations of the Indian Army. It is responsible for defending the Jammu and
Kashmir border on both the Pakistan and China fronts as well as maintaining the
internal security of the state.

Besides an outreach,
General Hooda also said there is need for a refined and more practical
surrender policy to allow Kashmiri youth who have joined terror groups a chance
to return to normal life.

The current surrender
policy suffers from several deficiencies. For instance, rehabilitation of the
surrendered militants is only possible if they return to India either through
certain designated points like the Wagah-Atari Border and the Aman Setu in
Kupwara. Rarely, if any at all, have any of militants been able to return
through these routes.

General Hooda also
said there is need for a refined and more practical surrender policy to allow
Kashmiri youth who have joined terror groups a chance to return to normal life.

About 70-odd Kashmiri
boys are suspected to have joined terror groups like the Hizbul Mujahideen last
year. General Hooda's call for a more refined surrender policy indicates that a
section of the security forces feels that many of those who have joined
militancy have been misled and can be weaned away.

Four soldiers,
including an officer, and four terrorists were killed in Jammu and Kashmir last
week. A huge cache of weapons were recovered from south Kashmir. The winter is drawing
to a close. Infiltration drops during winter and picks up during spring and
summer, when passes are more negotiable. There is apprehension that the
upcoming summer will be as hot as last year's. According to the security
establishment, there are at least 250 terrorists — primarily belonging to the
Hizbul Mujahideen and Lashker-e-Toiba — still holed up in Jammu and Kashmir.

In 2016, nearly 100
people were killed when security forces fired to control mobs; several thousand
forces were also injured. Protests erupted across the valley after Hizbul
Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani was killed. Violent protests forced security
forces to impose curfew across the valley. Immediately after the curfew was
lifted, separatists enforced a lockdown of the Kashmir valley for over three
months. Internet and telephone services had to be suspended for months too.
Hundreds of youth were blinded by the pellet guns used by the CRPF to control
mobs. Security forces are
apprehensive that the unrest and turmoil of 2016 may revisit valley in the
summer of 2017. They have also warned the government that terror attacks will
be frequent in the coming days.